Occasionally sport becomes a platform for political demonstration and gives a voice to a movement. Today, 6 players on Iran's national team, including their captain, wore green wristbands in support of the Green Revolution and opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi during a World Cup qualifier against South Korea. They were instructed to remove the wristbands at the half. While this may not seem like much, keep in mind that these players have to fly back to Tehran tonight, and will likely be met by the state police. Iran drew the match against South Korea and are awaiting the results of a match between North Korea and Saudi Arabia. If one of these teams loses, Iran qualifies for the World Cup (in a draw, they fail to qualify). Unfortunately even if Iran qualifies, there's a good chance we'll never see these players, on the field or off, ever again.
though I was reading on the blogosphere that some Iranians questioned the extent to which the wristbands were a political statement. ppl in Iran (unconfirmed) claimed that the bands should have been darker green, and that they would be on only one hand. though i'm not disputing the potential significance of this.
ReplyDeleteand the whole situation in Iran right now is clearly the most intense/charged it has been since 1979. for more on this, one would need to read other blogs. may I suggest Andrew Sullivan's non-stop blogging of the green revolution: http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/
and it looks like the chap in the middle is wearing only one wristband...potentially refuting the second claim, lending validity to the assertion that these guys are ballsy as shit.
ReplyDeleteChuck C is right that there's a lot of misinformation going around especially because it's difficult to substantiate illegal broadcasting from a country in lockdown. But Iran's players have no history of wearing green wristbands and the timing is indisputable. The removal at halftime really seals it.
ReplyDeleteHere is BBC's video on the subject:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8105722.stm
NYT's "The Lede" has done a remarkably good job of following the news from Iran.
Link to The Lede:
ReplyDeletehttp://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/17/updates-on-irans-disputed-election/
Another problem with information (Lede/NYT, BBC, various tweeting, blogs galore) coming out on Iran right now is that the news media have been threatened by the Iranian govt with military force. So basically the usual mechanisms for fact checking and news gathering have been compromised.
ReplyDeleteThat information is coming out is nevertheless impressive. History is happening halfway around the world.
Update: N. Korea and S. Arabia draw 0-0, and Iran does not qualify for the World Cup.
ReplyDelete